It’s a Thursday evening in late July, and a group of about a dozen or so D.C. Burners are gathered for happy hour at Hi-Lawn, the rooftop bar at Union Market. No, this isn’t a group of people doing the latest heart-pounding workout trend or politicos enthusiastic about burner phones. The reality is perhaps less likely: These seemingly average bargoers are actually devotees of Burning Man, the wild, week-long arts festival that takes over a stretch of the Nevada desert every year in late August.
And to hear them tell it, this region — more associated with workaholics in uninspiring button-downs than free-spirited nonconformists — is actually burning red hot when it comes to living the Burning Man lifestyle.
So how did I end up here? It all started when I previewed this year’s Capital Fringe theater festival and stumbled upon a storytelling production titled 10 Principles. The D.C. Burners were listed as the show’s creators, and, after some digging, I found a Facebook page of the same name with an eye-popping 7,000 members. I went a little further down this particular internet rabbit hole, at which point I also found a meticulously well-maintained spreadsheet of official “burns” and unofficial, “very-burnery” events across the Mid-Atlantic region.
When I reached out to the email address listed on the D.C. Burners’ website, I found a reply in my inbox from someone named “Nexus” less than 30 minutes later. There was a nonzero chance I’d taken the first step toward joining a...
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